Improvement in fly-traps



J. M. SCANTLIN.

FLY-TRAPS.

Patented Oct. 3, 1876.

1 NITED STATES JAMES M. SOANTLIN, OF EVANSVILLE, INDIANA.

lMPROVEMENT IN FLV-TRAPS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 182,777, dated October 3, 1876; application filed August 10, 1876.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, JAMEs M. SOAN'ILIN, of the city of Evansville, county of Vanderburg, and State of Indiana, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Fly-Traps, which improvement is fully set forth in the following specification, reference being had to the accompanying drawings.

The object of my invention is to afford a rapid method of entrapping flies by means of a simple and cheap device, which consists of an outer casing, A, of sheet metal and wirecloth, provided with a lid, F, at the top of the casing, for emptying out of flies after having been caught and killed. In the lower part of the case A I have a floor, B, raised slightly above the bottom 0 of the case, from the center of which floor rises the turret D. The turret is also made of wire-cloth or other material that will admit the light, and has a cap, E, of the same material, which a very little overhangs the sides of the turret. The cap E is heldin place by stays aataheightenough above the top edge of the turret D to admit of the passage of the flies through the opening G thus formed. The sharp prickly edges d at the rim of the cap E and the like edge d at the top of the turret are turned over slightly to prevent the flies returning into the turret after they have once passed into the main case A. At the bottom of the case A, and underneath the floor B, and on the inner side of the case, I fasten strips H of metal, which extend below the main case, and are so made as to answer the purposes of holding the raised edge of the lower wooden bottom 0 away from the case A, to form apassage-way, J, for the entrance of flies, roaches, and other insects, and to act as springs to hold the wooden bottom 0 in its place. On the top of the wooden bottom 0 are plowed trenches K for holding bait. I prefer to make these trenches so that they cross each other at right angles, and thereby conduct the flies to the center of the bottom 0 immediately under the turret. The opaque floor B, from which rises the turret, darkens the space underneath between the bait-trenches K and the outer entrance J, and this darkness prevents the flies from retreating from the trap, and they naturally fly up into the turret D, where they have more light, and from whence they pass into the outer case A.

The turret D may be made either round, triangular, square, or of any other shape.

Figure 1 is a side elevation of my trap; Fig. 2, a vertical sectional View; Fig. 3, a plan view of the double bottom, composed of the floors B and C.

I claim- 1. The turret D, constructed with the top cap E, projecting slightly over the wall of the turret, with the upper edge of the turret turned outward, forming, with the projecting edge of said cap, open lips, through which the flies pass from the turret to the main case A, substantially as and for the purposes specified.

2. The bent strips H, attached to the inside of the main case A at its bottom, and acting as springs when pressed against the bottom 0, holding it in place, substantially as and for the purposes specified.

3. The bottom 0, provided with plowed trenches K, for the purpose of holding bait and enticing the flies to the center of the bot tom of the trap, as described.

4. A fly-trap constructed with the turret D, having the cap E and opening G, the upper floor B forming a dark chamber between it and the wooden bottom 0, the latter having the grooves K in the center, and held in its place by the bent strips H acting as springs when pressed against the bottom 0, substantially as and for the purposes specified.

JAMES M. SOANTLIN.

Witnesses:

J. W. BOEHNE, HERMAN BRAND. 

